"Inspiration in All Art" comes next. The veil of darkness, drawn back, reveals the arts: Music, Painting, Poetry, and Sculpture. A winged figure bears the torch of inspiration. The second of the California golds, the Wheat panel, follows, and then "The Birth of Oriental Art." The allegory here is the ancient Ming legend of the forces of earth trying to wrest inspiration from the powers of air. A Chinese warrior mounted on a dragon struggles with an eagle.
Gold, the yellow metal, is the subject of the next panel, followed by "Ideals in Art." In this appear concrete symbols of the chief motives of art, the classic nude of the Greeks, the Madonna and Child of Religion, Joan of Arc for Heroism, Youth and Material Beauty represented by a young woman, and Absolute Nature by the peacock. A mystic figure in the background holds the cruse wherewith to feed the sacred flame. A winged figure bears laurels for the living, while the shadowy one in the center holds the palm for the dead. Last of all comes the Poppy panel, representing the fourth gold of California.
"The entire scheme—the conception and birth of Art, its commitment to the earth, its progress and acceptance by the human intellect,—is expressed in the four major panels. They are lighted from below by a brilliant flood of golden light, the sunshine of California, and reach up into the intense blue of the California skies." This, as well as much of the interpretation of the eight pictures, is drawn from Reid's own account.
Within the rotunda has been installed Paul Wayland Bartlett's spirited equestrian statue of Lafayette. This is a replica of the original work, which was presented to the French Government by the school children of the United States, and stands in the gardens of the Louvre. Other notable statues here are Karl Bitter's Thomas Jefferson, John J. Boyle's Commodore Barry, Herbert Adams's Bryant, and Robert T. McKenzie's charming figure of "The Young Franklin." Outside the rotunda, facing the main entrance to the gallery, is "The Pioneer Mother," Charles Grafly, sculptor. Over the entrance is Leo Lentelli's "Aspiration."
Beautiful as is the Palace of Fine Arts by day, it is even more lovely at night. (p. 137.) Either by moonlight or under the gentle flood of illumination that rests softly upon it when the heavens are dark, it is wonderful. There is so much of perfection in the building, and it is so well placed, that it needs no special conditions to be at its best. Nor is any particular viewpoint necessary. Stand where you will around this structure, or on the opposite margin of the lagoon, and each position gives you a different grouping of columns and dome and wall, a different setting of trees and water. The form of the Palace is responsible for this. Roughly speaking, a rectangular structure presents but four views. But the great arc of the Fine Arts, with its detached colonnade following the same curve on either side of the rotunda, is not so restricted. Every new point of view discloses new beauty. The breadth of the lagoon before it guarantees a proper perspective. It is impossible not to see it aright.
An excellent test of the quality of all such temporary structures is the satisfaction with which one thinks of them as permanent buildings. No other of the palaces would wear so well in its beauty if it were set up for the joy of future generations. It would be a glorious thing for San Francisco if the Fine Arts Palace could be made permanent in Golden Gate Park. To duplicate it in lasting materials would cost much, but it would be worth while. San Francisco owes it to itself and its love for art to see that this greatest of Western works of art does not pass away. As it stands on the Exposition grounds, it is more enduring than any of the other palaces. To induce the loan of its priceless contents, the building had to be fireproof. But the construction is not permanent. The splendid colonnade, a thing of exquisite and manifold beauty, is only plaster, and can last but a season or two. Even were the building solid enough to endure, its location is impossible after the Exposition closes.
It should be duplicated in permanent form. No doubt a proper site, with a setting of water and trees, can best be found in Golden Gate Park. The steel frame and roof of the main gallery could easily be transferred there and set up again. While it would cost too much to duplicate in real marble the pillars of the colonnade and dome, yet these can be reproduced in artificial stone as successfully as they have here been imitated in plaster. In the Pennsylvania Railroad station in New York travertine has been counterfeited so well that no one can tell where the real ends and the imitation begins.
Every other considerable city in the civilized world has its art gallery. San Francisco has already the full-sized model of surely the most beautiful one in the world. Made permanent in the Park, this Palace of Art would not only honor San Francisco, but would be "a joy forever" to all America.
The Fine Arts Exhibit[1].—The Palace of Fine Arts contains what the International Jury declares the best and most important collection of modern art that has yet been assembled in America. The war in Europe had a two-fold effect on this exhibition. While it prevented some countries, like Russia and Germany, from sending their paintings and sculptures, it led others, such as France and Italy, to send more than they otherwise would have sent. The number the Exposition might have was limited only by its funds available for insurance. So many were the works of art sent over on the Vega and the Jason that an Annex was required to house them.
It must be remembered that this art exhibit, like the other exhibits of the Exposition, is contemporaneous. It represents, with exceptions, the work of the last decade. Most of the exceptions are in the rooms of the Historical Section, the Abbey, Sargent, Whistler, Keith, and other loan collections, and the great Chinese exhibit of ancient paintings on silk. In general, the paintings and sculptures made famous by time are not in the Fine Arts Palace. Its rooms are mainly filled with the latest work of artists of the day, exhibited under the Exposition's rule which limits competition in all departments to current production. This explains, for instance, why the French Government has placed its Meissoniers and Detailles, with Rodin's bronzes, in the French Pavilion. A Michelangelo, works of Benvenuto Cellini, and many old paintings and statues are in the beautiful Italian Pavilion. Other paintings of value are in the Belgian section of the French Pavilion, and in the Danish Pavilion.